(JTA) – Russia said it will return to Israel a tank that Syrian forces captured in 1982 in a traumatic battle for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that ended with 20 dead and three MIAs.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an order to return to Israel the tank from the 1982 Battle of Sultan Yacoub in the First Lebanon War, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sunday. [Read more…]

(JTA) – A probe into alleged fraud and misuse of public funds at the Israeli prime minister’s residence yielded evidence that police said may support a conviction against Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife, Sara.

The probe concluded Sunday was initiated last year amid claims that Sara Netanyahu expensed services provided to her family for their private use, falsely claiming it was for the residence, which is not owned by the Netanyahu and whose maintenance is paid for by the state. [Read more…]

(JTA) – Police in Israel arrested 12 Palestinians from the Bethlehem area suspected of planning a bus bombing last month in Jerusalem.

The arrests took place in recent weeks but were only made public Sunday following the lifting of a gag order on the investigation of the April 18 bombing of bus 12 in Jerusalem, in which 19 people were wounded. [Read more…]

(JTA) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government may be on the verge of collapse according to Israel’s Channel 10.

In a report Friday night, the TV station quoted unnamed “party leaders” saying that Netanyahu’s surprise move to bring the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party into the coalition may be backfiring on him. [Read more…]

(JTA) – The United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Jordan are reportedly planning to have former Gaza strongman Mohammed Dahlan replace Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Citing unnamed senior Palestinian and Jordanian sources, Middle East Eye reported Friday on the joint plan to bring Dahlan, the former leader of Abbas’ Fatah party in the Gaza Strip, back from exile in the Gulf. [Read more…]

(JTA) – IBM Watson Health and Medtronics are teaming up with an Israeli hospital to create a high-tech “incubator” to encourage innovations in digital medicine.

Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa announced the partnership, to be called “MindUP,” on Friday. Funded by the the Israel venture capital firms Pitango and Impact First, the incubator is to be housed at the Haifa Life Sciences Technology Park in northern Israel. [Read more…]

(JTA) – Speaking at Harvard University’s commencement, filmmaker Steven Spielberg said he was “wrong” as a kid to think anti-Semitism “was fading.”

Spielberg, whose 99-year-old father Arnold sat in one of the first rows at his address before the Ivy League university’s class of 2016, told the graduates Thursday that the world “is full of monsters” espousing “racism, homophobia, ethnic hatred, class hatred” and “religious hatred.” [Read more…]

(JTA) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized Israeli media and the political establishment – and later tempered his remarks – for not reacting to a Jewish woman’s allegations that she was raped by three Palestinians for what Israeli police described as “nationalistic” motives.

The alleged incident occurred on May 11, the eve of Israeli Independence Day, in southern Tel Aviv, the news site nrg reported. The victim accused two Palestinians in their 20s and another Palestinian minor of raping her. The minor and another suspect are under arrest and deny any wrongdoing. A third suspect implicated in the case is at large. Some details of the incident are subject to a gag order. [Read more…]